KastKing Rover Round Baitcasting Reel, Left Handed Fishing Reel,Rover70

This reel is the identical reel to the older Abu-Garcia reel and for half the price. I use this for bottom fishing in deep water (100-150 feet) and also for dragging tube and worm for striped bass. Performs great with both these applications.

Took this reel out for its first use paired with a Catfish Sumo chopstick master series rod and 50 lb. Big game mono. Going out for blue catfish. Reel looks and feels great, but it didn’t function right out of the box and there seems to be some slop in it. I have to thumb the reel some to even get the spool to release to let out line for a cast. Made adjustments to the spool tensioners but that didn’t seem to work. Even let a buddy check it out. After hooking a turtle and the pressure it out in the reel seemed to work better after, but felt discouraged after the reel didn’t really perform its primary function out of the box. Time will tell I guess.

Heavy duty reel. The button for casting gets stuck a lot. Have taken apart to fix and it still gets stuck. May just be my reel.

This is a good reel ! Took it out last week and it ran flawlessly. Hooked up a 50lb blue fin tuna and it held up great !!

Seems like a quality reel. But, the chart says it should hold 430 yards of 70 lb. braid. Not even close. I filled the reel up to the level wind mechanism and calculate it took between 250-280 yards. The line spool I bought from Kastking holds 327 yards (300 meters) of braid. There is lots left on the spool and I wound it pretty tight onto the reel. So now I wish I had moved up to the 80 size reel for the extra capacity. Oh well. Will use this for a while and see how it goes. Also, the mounting tabs are pretty thin. They may hold the weight of a larger fish, but on my 50-80 lb. rod, the reel slides around. I will need to wrap the tabs when I clamp it onto the rod to help hold it in place. And lastly, I am now wishing this was a two speed reel. With 250 yards or more, it takes a LONG time to reel that much line. This is my first saltwater reel and I'm used to freshwater spinning reels where you have lots less line and way faster retrieve rates. If I ever catch a fish big enough to strip most of the line off this reel, its going to take a while to reel him back in !!